“Sara,” from J Mascis pal Chad VanGaalen’s fourth full-length album Diaper Island, opens with a pretty whistle then turns into a bit of a winsome lover’s sigh. The collection’s the first the Calgary hero’s done in his new home studio, Yoko Eno. He recorded the other stuff at home, too, but in his “cramped” basement: You can feel the extra space and light, especially in this one, the album’s sparest, widest-eyed moment.

Diaper Island is out 5/17 via Sub Pop. You might not have gotten this via “Sara,” but Sub Pop had this to say about the record:

For the first time, multi-tracked and often overdriven guitar is the instrument at the center of the songs, which are often Spartan and free of the melodic details that embellished previous albums. With this focus on guitar, combined with a beloved vintage tape machine determining the sound, VanGaalen moved towards a leaner, no-frills approach—one that more closely resembles the music that influenced him as a teenager, while continuing the arc laid out in his previous work.